The Rise of ‘Standing Desk Envy’

Keith Lindor had spent decades sitting at a desk. So when the executive vice provost and dean of the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University was approached by a colleague about switching to a sit-to-stand desk as part of an office-wide redesign, he dismissed the idea as not his style.

Six weeks later, he found himself standing at the elevated desk of operations chief Melanie Burm, requesting a sit-to-stand of his own. He changed his mind, he said, because he’d noticed dozens of colleagues enjoying the new desks’ flexibility and collaborating more effectively now that they could see one another face-to-face over cubicle walls. Not to mention the health benefits of sitting less.

As companies get wise to the ways standing or sit-to-stand setups can raise their game, employees who didn’t opt in at first—or who aren’t eligible for the perk—are suffering from serious “desk envy.”

Dr. Lindor, standing at last. (Credit: Tim Lewis)

At GeekDesk, a maker of multi-posture furniture, new customers are increasingly finding their way to the company via colleague referrals, said Donovan McNutt, founder and president of the Visalia, Calif.-based manufacturer. Recent company data suggest that at least 10% of new GeekDesk orders came as coworker referrals.

Mr. McNutt points to a U.S. government agency that placed an order for a single desk for its Alaska branch in 2011. Word spread, and the agency has since ordered dozens of desks for branches across the country, he said. The desks range in price from about $749 to $1,160.

The setups are so desirable that some workers for whom state-of-the art furniture isn’t available or financially feasible are hacking their way to inexpensive versions.

Tambra Means, a bookkeeper at a Tallahassee, Fla., law firm, is an avid runner who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis. With the hope of alleviating her joint pain, Means purchased a desk riser and anti-fatigue floor mat for less than $200 total through the firm’s supply company, knowing she might not be reimbursed for the cost if the expense wasn’t approved by the firm administrator. (It was.) Means now spends about 95% of her day standing, she said, and her knees haven’t been bothering her.

Colleagues have been asking where and how she got the setup, she said.

Tambra Means hacked her way to a standing desk. (Credit: Ms. Means)

For the ASU office, the shift to sit-to-stand desks was the centerpiece of a larger physical overhaul of the office space to make it a more welcoming and productive environment, Burm said. The renovations included the removal of obstructions from windows to allow for more sunlight, a more centralized “bullpen” layout and the installation of shared treadmill desk workstations. Walking meetings have become common practice among his colleagues, Lindor said.

After a two-month wait, Lindor’s roughly $1,100 sit-to-stand desk, which cost about the same as the new standard desk, arrived in late 2013. So far, standing is agreeing with him.

And he said working on his feet has encouraged him to be health-conscious in more ways than one: “It’s a further reach to my drawer with my peanuts in it.”

Here’s how to hack a standing desk without breaking the bank (hint: head to Ikea):

$22: Tech entrepreneur Colin Nederkoorn cobbled together this D.I.Y. standing-desk riser, which he dubbed the Standesk 2200, from Ikea parts. It can transform virtually any standard desk into a standing one.

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